Forum Flash | Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul just say 'no'

Rand Paul

Something rather remarkable happened in the U.S. Senate this week. Democrats and Republicans came together to pass an extension of the Violence Against Women Act, which provides resources to help victims of domestic violence.

Should be a given, right? Wrong.

In today's charged, culture-war territory and atmosphere, nothing is a given, not even funding law enforcement and victim advocate services - especially, it would seem, when those lifesaving services are extended to undocumented immigrants and gay and transgender people. Are they any less hurt, any less threatened, any less victimized because of their citizenship status or sexual orientation or identity? That answer should also be a given, but guess again. Thirty-one Senate Republicans - including, to what should be Kentucky's shame, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul; and Indiana's Richard Lugar - voted against this.

Unlike 15 of their fellow Republicans, some of whom overcame misgivings they had about portions of the revisions to support the law, Sens. McConnell and Paul and their "nay" cohorts are now on record as voting against the Violence Against Women Act. In its own way, that is quite remarkable, too.

Kentuckians should keep this vote in mind as they also contemplate this statistic, reported Friday in The Courier-Journal: 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by intimate partners in the United States.

What part of McConnell's and Paul's "no" can we understand?

Louisville, Kentucky • Southern Indiana

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Forum Flash | Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul just say 'no'

Something rather remarkable happened in the U.S. Senate this week. Democrats and Republicans came together to pass an extension of the Violence Against Women Act, which provides resources to help